Almost 50 years on, the dream burns still

THERE will be echoes of 1967 in Parliament House on Wednesday when both sides of politics pass legislation that will give momentum to the push to recognise the first Australians in the nation's founding document.

Shirley Peisley was 26 when she pinned badges on the lapels of politicians in support of modest but hugely symbolic constitutional change.

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Like most of the activists, they stayed at Brassey Hotel, then called Brassey Hostel. ''Anyone who had a room - and some of us did - would have swags all over the floor,'' Professor O'Donoghue recalls.

When they weren't talking about the struggle or singing We Shall Overcome and other anthems of the American civil rights movement, Professor O'Donoghue recalls some of the activists throwing boomerangs on the vacant land opposite.

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This week, the two women are back in the same digs, and hoping that the unity, energy and optimism that abounded almost half a century ago will be replicated.

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The 1967 referendum resulted in indigenous Australians being counted in the census and gave the national government the power to make laws for their benefit, but only conferred what Noel Pearson described as a ''neutral kind of citizenship''.

Shirley Peisley found herself thrust into the centre of the 1967 referendum campaign. Photo: Fairfax Archives

The Act of Recognition to be backed by Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott is the forerunner to a referendum to enshrine this recognition in the constitution.

The Prime Minister will acknowledge the courage of Kevin Rudd in delivering the apology to the stolen generations this day, five years ago - and of the indigenous people for accepting it. Ms Peisley expects that, like the referendum, the proposal will win the support of more than 90 per cent of voters. But, like Professor O'Donoghue, she admits to being on tenterhooks.

''The biggest fabrication was creating a constitution that said nobody was here, that the land was barren and empty,'' she says. ''We definitely were here. It's the biggest lie ever told in this country and we've got to change that. It's about setting the record straight.''

Professor O'Donoghue agrees, and says one of the biggest challenges is to achieve the kind of unity among Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders that ruled in 1967.

But she has a deeper worry, one that stems from the experience of being part of special symbolic moments that don't lead to far-reaching change on the ground - the 1967 referendum, the bridge walks of 2000 - even the apology.

''I live in hope every time that something special like this comes, that something special comes from it,'' she says. ''But every time our hopes and dreams are always shattered … we don't get any satisfaction. This time I'm hoping it will be different.''